Homunculus and experience

[Eltern]

Question 1: Is a homunculus automatically considered the wizard's familiar? And if not, could it become the familiar? It seems a little odd having two such little helpers (Could be some rivalry), when they could be the same thing.

Question 2: I feel very foolish for asking this, but here it goes anyway; How do npc classes such as the Expert gain exp? They presumably don't get in fights as often as PCs, as the DMG states, but that just doesn't set well with my mind. A high level Expert would most likely get that way from practice and study of his art(s), not through beating kobolds. How do you handle npc advancement? And if you do say that these individuals got to high levels from schooling, practice, etc., then can't the PCs do so as well? What would then keep the party wizard from simply studying for a year or so and gain multiple levels? Seems that if all he did was study and practice spells he'd get somewhere.

Eltern

 

[gtJormungand]

Sometime within the last few months, I read a thread about the advancement of commoners; I thought it might have been at Sean K. Reynolds site, but I can't find it anymore. It had to do with getting a commoner getting XP for a CR 1 encounter from 1 year of normal commoner-life. It ammounted to the commoner never getting much higher than 8th or 9th level near the age of 40.

If anyone remembers that thread, that'll probably have the ideas that you're looking for.

 

[bret]

On your first question, no homunculus is not automatically considered a wizard's familiar. In Tome & Blood, they give a feat that would allow one to become a wizards familiar. By default, they are not.

When you consider the advantages gained by a familiar, this doesn't seem so strange. The homunculos has one advantage over other familiar types, the wizard can repair it (remove damage).

 

[Eltern]

yay

I looked on Reynold's site; there is a little speal on how to rationalize level advancement among the commoners, and even a bit on how PCs could do so as well. I'm going to presume that NPCs (with NPC classes) that raise above 9th level do so because of abnormal circumstances.

Doesn't it seem that the homunculus would make a pretty powerful familiar? I suppose it is a matter of preference whether you want 2 low power pals or 1 powerful friend, but I personally would prefer the latter. But then there are greater negatives when/if it dies...


Eltern